1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus which is capable of performing a tilting operation for shifting an object field of the imaging apparatus in a tilting direction, and a tilting device incorporated in the imaging apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed an automatic object follow-up device which is capable of automatically following up an object in panning and tilting directions or automatically following up an object according to an output of a sensor that detects a camera shake (see e.g. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication (Kokai) No. H07-104335). This automatic object follow-up device is comprised of a lens barrel assembly integrally incorporating a lens barrel that holds a lens group and an image pickup element that picks up an object image formed thereon through the lens group, and a mirror-rotating means for tilting a reflective surface of a mirror directed toward the object, at a location forward of the lens group, to thereby vary the tilt angle of the reflective surface of the mirror. In this automatic object follow-up device, by varying the tilt angle of the reflective surface of the mirror, the object image is turned toward the lens group via the reflective surface of the mirror, and at the same time the lens barrel assembly is rotated about the optical axis of the lens barrel, in unison with the mirror.
However, with the arrangement of the above described automatic object follow-up device, the mirror for performing a tilting operation is provided forward of the lens group of the lens barrel assembly in a tilted manner, and hence this causes an increase in the size of the device. Further, when an upward or downward tilting operation is performed through a large tilt angle relative to a horizontal direction, i.e. when the reflective surface of the mirror is tilted through a large angle, the object field of the image pickup element can be obstructed by the lens barrel assembly, and hence it is difficult to secure a sufficient tilt angle, that is, a tilting operation-allowable range is limited.